


Impossible

by resident_vamp



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-12-03 22:18:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resident_vamp/pseuds/resident_vamp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s with Clara when he sees it and for a moment he thinks he’s hallucinating because it just can’t be.</p>
<p>His initial instinct is to search for her, anywhere, everywhere. But he’s not stupid; he knows she won’t be anywhere. She is gone, fleeting, like the wind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impossible

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Challenge 001 at [then_theres_us](http://then-theres-us.livejournal.com/) at LJ. The story is based on [this picture prompt.](http://i.imgur.com/IrJO1g2.jpg)

He’s with Clara when he sees it and for a moment he thinks he’s hallucinating because it _just can’t be._

His initial instinct is to search for her, anywhere, everywhere. But he’s not stupid; he knows she won’t be anywhere. She is gone, fleeting, like the wind. 

They find it again. They’re in Cardiff and he sees it down an alley. 

_I take the words..._

Somehow she’s traveling. Somehow she’s leaving him messages. But she can’t. It’s impossible. For her to be traveling something would have to be wrong. Catastrophically wrong; because he left her with her happiness on that beach, never to see her again. 

Except…

_I scatter them through time and space…”_

A third time, on a planet other than Earth, and he knows then it is definitely not a coincidence. Clara is confused; she doesn’t understand why he’s obsessed with the words. He doesn’t want to explain because doesn’t understand either. 

_A message to lead myself here._

And then he finds her, and it’s almost too late. She has been hurt and he doesn’t know by what and she’s almost not breathing. His other self is nowhere to be found.

It is then he realizes he is running into her from before. 

It should be impossible. And yet, here she is, right in front of him, with the dimension cannon around her neck. 

He takes her to the medical bay and treats her best that he can. While he’s working her eyelids flutter and she mumbles his name. He knows he can’t let her wake up in the TARDIS. She can’t know who he is. It would ruin everything. 

This pains him more than anything else. He wants to hold her, kiss her, never let her go; but that would be selfish and he can’t be selfish with her. 

So while she’s sleeping he places a gentle kiss on her forehead. It’s the only thing he can do. 

He is watching from the distance when she wakes up on the ground, Clara sitting next to her. Clara agreed to do this for him in exchange for the story later. He reluctantly agreed; there was nothing else he could do. 

He watches as Clara explains what happened (or an abridged version of what happened, anyway). He is too far away to see her face as she reacts to what Clara is telling her, but he can see her face in his mind. After a moment Clara helps her stand up, and she hugs Clara, clearly grateful for the help. 

There is a burning in his throat and he feels the urge to look away because it hurts too much to watch her, but he doesn’t because he has always been a masochist. 

Clara returns to him after she leaves. Clara is silent for a moment and then she looks up at him.

“She wanted me to tell you something.” He doesn’t look at Clara. The burning in his throat grows stronger. “She wanted me to tell you…” Clara pauses, looking unsure, but then continues. “She wanted me to tell you, you’re still her Doctor, even with a bow tie.”

He clenches his jaw and finds he is unable to swallow. 

It’s too much. 

He takes Clara’s hand in his and squeezes. She squeezes back. 

“There was a girl, and her name was _Rose_.”


End file.
